274 FREAKS OF PLANT LIFE. 



flaps. Of a different character, but no less strange, 

 are the laterally flattened pink flowers of a plant 

 now common in gardens, which first bore the name 

 of " Dutchman's breeches " {Dielytra spectabilis). 

 Some of the tubular flowers are beautiful enough 

 to merit the old belief that they were the habitations 

 of the "good people." 



'Twas I that led you thro' the painted meads, 

 Where the light fairies danced upon the flowers, 

 Ranging on every leaf an orient pearl, 

 Which, struck together with the silken wind 

 Of their loose mantles, made a silver chime. 



Note. — By an unfortunate accident the manuscript of this^ 

 and the five or six succeeding chapters, was lost on its way to 

 the printers, and had to be re-written under disadvantages, for 

 the notes and memoranda accumulated during some fifteen 

 years had been incorporated, and the originals destroyed. 

 Undoubtedly some omissions will have to be accounted for by 

 this circumstance. 



